Semi-continuous hot rolling of metal strip and plates

[2. Apparatus of claim 1 in which the direction of travel of workpieces entering the collecting means is opposite that of travel of workpieces leaving the delivery means.]

[3. Apparatus of claim 1 in which the collecting means comprise an upcoiler and the delivery means comprise payoff means.]

[4. Apparatus of claim 1 in which the collecting means comprise a run-out table and the delivery means comprise a runin table.]

[5. Apparatus of claim 1 including a shear positioned between the delivery means and the finishing stand.]

[6. Apparatus of claim 1 including a reversing roughing stand following the first roughing stand and a mill table between those stands of length sufficient to accommodate the first pass of the longest workpiece introduced into the first roughing stand.]

[7. Apparatus of claim 1 including at least one additional finishing stand in line with the finishing stand.]

[8. Apparatus of claim 7 in which the gap between at least two of the finishing stands is wide enough to permit passage of the rolls from the roughing stand therethrough and in which the roughing stand is spaced laterally from the finishing stands in

• line with that gap.]

[9. Apparatus of claim 1 in which the roughing stand is a reversing mill.]

[10. Apparatus of claim 9 including additional means in the mill table preceding the roughing stand for collecting rolled product thereof and paying it out thereto.]

[11. Apparatus of claim 10 in which the additional means comprise an upcoiler positioned above the mill table a distance sufficient to clear hot unworked workpieces deposited on the table.]

[12. Apparatus of claim 9 in which the roughing stand is a wide plate breakdown mill and including plate turnarounds.]

[13. Apparatus of claim 1 including driving means for the roughing stand and driving means for the finishing stands positioned on the same side thereof.]

[14. Apparatus of claim 13 including a single pulpit for operating both roughing and finishing stands positioned on the other side thereof.]

[15. Apparatus of claim 13 including roll-stop means positioned on the other side thereof, so that rolls removed from the roughing stand and rolls removed from the finishing stands can be transported into the roll-shop means by movement substantially in line laterally with those stands.]

[16. Apparatus of claim 1 including a plate cooling bed adjoining the runout table in front of the heating furnace and extending away from that furnace.]

[17. Apparatus of claim 16 including a plate delivery table adjoining the end of the plate cooling bed opposite the run-out table.]

[18. Apparatus of claim 17 including a second cooling bed extending away from the plate delivery table toward the run-out table and a second plate delivery table adjoining the end of the second plate cooling bed opposite the first plate

• delivery table.] 19. An upcoiler and uncoiler for hot rolled strip comprising a cylindrical housing in scroll form split on a vertical plane into a larger and a smaller element, means pivoting each element of the housing about a fixed pivot at its lower edge, those lower edges being spaced vertically from each other so as to form the upper and lower edges of an entry into the housing at the bottom thereof, an entry guide leading into the entry, and parallel driven coil-supporting rolls at the same elevation straddling the vertical plane and forming a continuation of the lower end of the smaller element.

[26. The method of hot rolling a metal workpiece to strip or plate without reheating comprising passing the hot workpiece back and forth through a reversing roughing stand, collecting the product on either side of the roughing stand as a flat bar and feeding it back into the stand as a flat bar until it is reduced to coiling thickness, then passing the workpiece back and forth through the reversing roughing stand, coiling the product on either side of the roughing stand and feeding it back into the stand by paying off the coiled bar until it is reduced to finishing stand thickness, transferring the coiled bar of finishing stand thickness to a finishing train, uncoiling the bar and passing it through the finishing train, whereby reducing the temperature difference between the ends of the bar below that found in unidirectional multi-stand strip mills.]

[27. The method of claim 26 in which the product is collected and fed back on each side of the roughing stand as a flat bar by passing it under coiling apparatus on each side of the roughing stand until it is reduced to coiling gauge, and then collecting it and feeding it back on each side of the roughing stand in and from that coiling apparatus on each side of the roughing stand.]

[28. The method of hot rolling a metal workpiece to strip or plate without reheating in a roughing train and a finishing train comprising passing the hot workpiece through a first roughing stand so as to produce a flat bar of increased length and reduced thickness, passing that bar through a second roughing stand in tandem with the first roughing stand to produce a flat bar of further increased length and further reduced thickness, reversing the second roughing stand and passing the flat bar back through it in the reverse direction, repeating the rolling and reverse rolling until the flat bar is reduced to coiling thickness, coiling the hot bar as it comes from the second roughing stand, uncoiling the hot bar and passing it back through the second roughing stand in the reverse direction, coiling the bar on the other side of the second roughing stand, repeating the uncoiling rolling and coiling until the bar is reduced in thickness to finishing train entry thickness, then transferring the coiled bar to a finishing train, uncoiling it and passing it through the finishing train, thereby reducing the temperature difference between the ends of the bar below that found in unidirectional multi-stand strip mills.]

[29. The method of claim 28 in which the roughing and finishing trains are disposed parallel to each other, but in which the work product travels from end-to-end in opposite directions therein, and in which the coiled bar is transferred broadside from roughing to finishing train.]

[30. The method of hot rolling a metal workpiece to strip or plate comprising passing the hot workpiece back and forth through a reversing stand, collecting the product on either side as a flat bar and feeding it back into the stand as a flat bar until it is reduced to a stretched out flat bar of finishing stand thickness, which is greater than that of coiling thickness, transferring the stretched out bar broadside to a finishing stand spaced laterally from the roughing stand and passing it through the finishing stand along a path of travel at a different level from its path of travel through the roughing stand, and driving the roughing stand and the finishing stand separately from the same side.]

In a semi-continuous mill installation for hot rolling metal work pieces into strip or plate having a heating furnace facility in line with a roughing train including a reversing roughing stand, a finishing train positioned parallel to the roughing train but opposite thereto in direction of work travel and separate driving means for the roughing train and the finishing train, the improvement comprising a space-saving and heat-conserving arrangement in which the roughing train and the finishing train are adjacent each other, the run-out table and coiling means only for the finishing train extend in front of the heating furnace facility, the separate driving means for each train are positioned on the heating furnace side of the roughing train, and the pass line of the finishing train is disposed below the pass line of the roughing train sufficiently for the driving spindles only of the finishing train to cross therebelow.

In the method of rolling flat metal products including the step of reducing a hot slab to elongated stock by repeatedly passing it through the rolls of a roughing stand, coiling the hot stock as it is reduced in said roughing stand and then paying out the reduced hot stock and rolling it to final gauge in a finishing train, the improvement comprising rolling finished coils of weight less than the weight of the slab by paying out the coiled hot stock from the roughing stand into the finishing train and shearing the uncoiled hot stock immediately ahead of the finishing train after the desired weight of hot stock has entered the finishing train.